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RESEARCH PROPOSAL

TORAJANESE PRONUNCIATION OF ENGLISH SOUNDS

By:

Meldianus Sopati

NIM: 09220055

Ottovianus Tandilangi

NIM: 09220053

FAKULTAS KEGURURAN DAN ILMU PENDIDIKAN

UNIVERSITAS KLABAT

December, 2014

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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

People communicate everywhere around the globe. When they communicate,

most of the time they use language as the main tool. People use language to express their

ideas and feelings. Language is only parts of communication tools but these two cannot

be separated from each other. Communication is the process where people interact with

other people in their social life and transfer message or information. One factor that

determines the success of communication is the correct pronunciation. Sakul (2011)

defined pronunciation as, “the way people produce a sound of language in a certain

language” (p.1). In addition, Roach (2000) added that, different people that use different

accents and the differences can be in geographical places, social classes, ages and also

educational backgrounds.

Producing correct sound in pronunciation is important to deliver a clear message

in communication. Derwing and Munro (2005) (cited in Nation & Newton, 2009.)

agreed with the above statement when they said that, "having good pronunciation of the

language can help in normal communication, particularly intelligibility" (P. 75). But,

however some obstacle that learner face in produce another of English sound system,

they found that mother tongue influence their pronunciation in English, as the same

manner as sound in communication playing important thing because Inaccurate of

pronounce sound can lead to misunderstanding as the (Brown, 2007) (cited in Fatemi,

Sobhani, & Abolhassani, 2012) said breakdown in communication sometimes as the

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result of incorrect on producing sound. That is why produce correct sound is very

essential in communication.

Background of the study

As the biggest country in Southeast Asia, Indonesia has 17.000 islands as The

Embassy of The Republic of Indonesia Washington DC (2014) state that “ Indonesia is a

vast equatorial archipeago „[archipelago]‟ of 17,000 islands extending 5,150 kilometers

(3,200 miles) east to west, between the Indian and Pacific Oceans in Southeast

Asia”(para, 9). The widespread of this country from Sabang in the West to Merauke in

the East makes this nation to have hundreds of tribes as Maulana (2013) said that, “more

than 200 tribes that sporadically spreads in more than 1.700 islands”. Each tribe speaks

different language and has its own native language properties. Even when people from

specific tribe meets the one from different tribe and speak Bahasa Indonesia as their

national language, miscommunication sometimes occurs, for example when the meaning

is „where are you from?‟ the Torajanese will say in Bahasa Indonesia, „Kita darimana?‟

while for Manadonese, the meaning of „kita‟ is me or „saya.‟ Another example due to

pronunciation aspect, Torajanese is having problems of pronouncing „f‟ sound and

consequently, they will say „five‟ for /paip/, beautiful for /byutipul/.

As a country with so many tribes, Indonesian people speak with different accents.

When speaking, one can tell where a person comes from or from what tribe he or she

belongs to only by listening to the accent. The same cases also occur when Indonesian

people who learn English as a second language sometimes carried over their accent.

Torajanese as one of the tribal languages in Indonesia is spoken by 224.852 people in

Northern part of South Sulawesi Province. The people in Toraja use Torajanese as their

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main language in their social communication. Torajanese accent is different from

another tribal language in Indonesia and of course it is also different with English. The

difference of accent between Torajanese and English can affects students to study

English. The above statement agrees with Odlin (1989) when he stated that the

“similarities and differences between languages (the target language and any other

language which one has acquired previously) influence the overall performance level of

learners in learning the target language” (as cited in Rehman, Khan, & Bukhari. p.1).

There are many factors that contribute to students‟ difficulties to master the English as

the target language and one of them is pronunciation problem.

English in Indonesia has become a compulsory subject taught from the lowest

level of education until the highest level, in this case, university. Even some university

apply bilingual medium of communication: English and Indonesia in their campuses. As

a bilingual campus, Universitas Klabat (Unklab) also uses English as well as Indonesian

in campus life. Prospectus students coming from different parts of Indonesia to study in

Unklab and one of the reason is because they want to speak and learn English. These

native Indonesian, with the background of their own native language wish expect to be

able to speak English like native speaker but they are often find difficulties and

sometimes face failure, some students failed to realize that the target of learning another

language is mastery of all of the subsystems of the language, like Phonology,

Morphology, Syntax, and Vocabulary.

Like other students from different parts of Indonesia, some Torajanese students

tend to have difficulty in producing English sounds because there are several English

sounds, consonants and vowels that which are not exist in Torajanese, for example when

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Torajanese students try to pronounce sound /ə/ they almost pronounce with /ɛ/ because

sound /ə/ isn‟t in Torajanese. This mispronunciation will of course lead to

mispronunciations which will eventually effects in miscommunication breakdowns.

Based on the facts mentioned above, the researchers are attracting to study the

subsystem of phonology, in this case, the Torajanese freshmen mispronunciation of the

production of on some English sound. Torajanese and English are different in

phonological features and the above fact is supported by Sloat, Taylor, and Hoard (1978)

when they argued that every language in the world has its own sound system and is

different from the other. There are none of the two languages which have exactly the

same.

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CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter presents the review of theory and research related to the study. The

first contains the related literature of English pronunciation, English alphabets: vowels

and consonants, and the Torajanese language that include Toraja-Sa‟dan alphabet.

English pronunciation

As define of pronunciation Yates and Zielinsky (2009) pronunciation is the way

people produce sound in communication to transfer the meaning. Pronunciation is

important to communicate and to be understood, as Burns and Claire (2012) state that,

even though learner is good in grammar, it‟s better to be understood if they good in

pronunciation. Listener understood what was said by the speaker is far more essential

therefore that the speaker should able to pronounce speech sounds that intelligible, as in

the pronunciation of English (Burns, 2003). On the other hand Gilankjani ( 2012) said

that “Pronunciation is a set of habits of producing sounds” (p.1). Cook (1996) argue that

“learning to pronounce a second language means building up new pronunciation habits

and overcoming the bias of the first language” (cited by Aarif, Isnin, & Jusoh). It shows

that the learner needs to practice again and again until the learner is familiar with sound

as the sounds is provided under the section of the language, and generally speech sounds

divided into two types, vowel and consonants sound, as English have 12 vowels, 8

diphthongs and 24 consonants.

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Vowel Sounds

“Vowel are produced when the passage of the air from the larynx to the lips is

relaively unrestriced” Deterding & Poedjosoedarmo, 1998, p. 15). Table 2.1 below

shows the movement of English vowels.

English vowels: General America (GA)

Table 2.1. English short and long vowel alphabet

The long vowel of GA The short vowel of GA

/i:/ heat /I/ hit

/ɜ:/ heat I/ hit

/ɔ:/ port /e/ bet

/ɑ:/ part /ə/ about

/u:/ cool /æ/ bat

/ʌ/ but

/ʊ/ cook

Vowel quality is classified in three-term systems, and they are: 1). Open/close:

vowel produced with the jaw lowered is called open vowel, 2). Front/back: vowel

produced with the tongue is pushed a little further forward/ toward the front or bunched

at the back of the mouth and, 3). Rounded/unrounded: vowel produced by spreading or

pursing/ protruding the lips.

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English consonants:

English has 24 consonant classified according to their respective place of

articulation, manner of articulation, voicing, voiced or voiceless.

English Consonants in terms of phonetics:

Table 2. 2. English IPA chart (from: www.tuninst.net)

Bil

abia

l

Lab

io-

den

tal

Den

tal

Alv

eola

r

Ret

rofl

ex

Post

-

alveo

lar

Pal

atal

Vel

ar

glo

ttal

Plosives p b t d k g

Affricative

s

ʧ ʤ

fricatives f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ

nasal m N ƞ h

Lateral L

Glides w r J

Place of articulation

Based on place of articulation, consonants are grouped into the followings:

Lips: Bilabial consonants /p, b, m, w/

Lips and teeth: Labiodentals consonants: /f, v/

Teeth: dental consonants /θ/ , ð/

Alveolar ridge: Alveolar consonants /t, d, s, z, n, l/

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Central plate: Post alveolar consonants / ʃ /, ʒ, r, tʃ, dʒ/

Central plate : palatal consonant / j /

Velum (or soft palate): Velar consonants /k, g, ŋ /

Glottis: Glottal fricative /h/

Manner of articulation

The process by which the moving column of air is shaped is called the manner of

articulation. For English, these are:

Stops/Plosive: /p, t, k, b, d, g/

Fricatives: /f, v, θ, ð, s, z, ʃ, ʒ, h/

Affricates: / tʃ, dʒ/

Nasals: /m, n, ŋ/ (sometimes called “nasal stops”)

Lateral Approximant: / l /

Approximant: /w, r, j/

Toraja vernacular

One of the tribes in Indonesia is the Toraja Tribe with their mother language

known as Bahasa Toraja or Toraja language. Toraja language is the dominant language

spoken in Torajanese, a region located in the highland, in the northern part of South

Sulawesi Province. The Toraja Sa'dan is the main language dialect. Sa'dan Toraja

dialects used in some areas, such as Makale (Tallulembangna), Rantepao (Kesu'), and the

West Toraja (Toraja West, Mappa-Pana). Toraja-Sa'dan language is included in the

“Malayo-Polynesian language of the Austronesian” (Pangala, 2012). Toraja-Sa‟dan is

an Austronesian language of West Sulawesi, Indonesia (Wikipedia). Toraja-Sa'dan

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language is one of the languages spoken in the area surrounding Tana Toraja, South

Sulawesi, Indonesia.

Although Indonesian language is the official language that is spoken in the

community, all elementary schools in Tana Toraja teach Toraja vernacular. Indonesian

language overwhelmed by the whole Toraja society whether young and old. This is

because the effect of the spread of Christianity that use Indonesian as media in delivering

the religious messages.

Toraja Sa'dan dialect is similar to the Batak, fast and loud in speaking, they talk

like people screaming, probably because the Toraja area is mountains so they have to

speak loudly so that people who are invited talk across or down below could be heard.

Torajanese has its own phonology. Sloat, Taylor, and Hoard, 1978) state that

“phonology is the science of speech sounds and sound patterns” (p.1). Toraja language

has 21 sounds alphabets of language (phonemes). It has 5 vowel sounds: a, i, u, e, o. and

17 consonant sounds, namely: b, d, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, ng, ', p, r, s, t, w, y. (retrieved from:

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/torajasadan.htm)

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Toraja Sa'dan Alphabet

Table 2.3.Toraja Sa‟dan Alphabet (from:www.omniglot.com/writing/torajasadan.htm)

Vowels

A e I o u

[a] [ɛ] [i] [ɔ] [u]

Consonants

B d G k L m n ng

[b] [d] [g] [k] [l] [m] [n] [ŋ]

P r S t W y ʔ

[p] [r] [s] [t] [w] [j] [ʔ]

Vowels

/a/ – ah. It has the sound of “a” as in Toraja “male” (go), and “Ha!, father” in English.

/e/ – e, stressed “e” as in Toraja “den” (there are/is), and “met, set” in English.

/i/ – ee, Has the sound of “i” as in Toraja “iko”(you), and “in, bee” in English .

/o/ – oh. Has the sound of “o” as in Toraja “oto” (mobil), and “hot, know” in English.

/u/ – oo. Has the sound of “u” as in Toraja “tau” (people), and “put, sue” in English.

Consonants

/b/ – be, Has the sound of “b” as in Toraja “banua” (house), and “baby” in English.

/d/ – de, Has the sound of “d” as in Toraja “dassi” (bird), and “dance” in English.

/g/ – ge. Has the sound of “g” as in Toraja “gandang” (drum), and “get” in English.

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/k/ – ka, but short. Like in English, except that in final position it is “unreleased”

(glottal stop). As in Toraja “kumande” (eat), and “sink” in English.

/l/ – el, Has the sound of “l” as in Toraja “lemo” (orange fruit), and “real” in English.

/m/ – em, Has the sound of “m” as in Toraja “mabongi” (night), and “made” in

English.

/n/ – en, Has the sound of “n” as in Toraja “kande” (food), and “negative” in English.

/p/ – pe, Has the sound of “p” as in Toraja “pao” (mango”), and “pay” in English.

/r/ – air. This letter is always sounded, no matter where it occurs. It is lightly rolled

“r”, not the American “r”. as in Toraja “kadera” (chair).

/s/ – ess, Has the sound of “s” as in Toraja “sanga” (name), and “snake” in English.

/t/ – te, Has the sound of “t” as in Toraja “tanta” (aunt), and “tourist” in English.

/w/ – we, Has the sound of “w” as in Toraja “wai” (water), and “way”. in English.

/y/ – ye, Has the sound of “y” as in Toraja “mentoyang” (hanging), and “yellow” in

English.

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Table 2.4. Comparison of English vs Torajanese vowels and consonants sounds

Vowels Consonants

English Toraja English Toraja

/i:/ /i/ /p/ /p/

/ɜ:/ /ɜ/ /b/ /b/

/ɔ:/ /ɔ/ /t/ /t/

/ɑ:/ /a/ /d/ /d/

/u:/ /u/ /k/ /k/

/I/ - /g/ /g/

/ɒ/ - /s/ /s/

/e/ - /m/ /m/

/ə/ - /n/ /n/

/æ/ - / ŋ/ / ŋ/

/æ/ - /h/ /h/

/ʌ/ - /l/ /l/

/ʊ/ - /w/ /w/

/r/ /r/

/j/ /j/

/ʧ/ -

/ʤ/ -

/f/ -

/v/ -

/θ/ -

/ð/ -

/z/ -

/ʃ/ -

/ʒ/ -

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From the table above can be found that Toraja people cannot pronounce some

English sounds because there are some English sound doesn‟t exist in Torajanese

alphabet. The pronunciation of the Toraja language is the same as Indonesian. However,

some of the graphemes do not exist in the Toraja language (c, f, v, x, z). On the other

hand it is very common in Toraja that, unlike in Indonesian, letters are doubled (e.g. r, k,

l). The Toraja language also distinguished itself with its utilization of the glottal stop,

which is indicated in the text by an apostrophe (e.g. Sa‟dan, ambe‟ (father), tae'

(no/nothing) kantoro' (office) etc.). The absence of some voices in the system of Toraja

language causing the Toraja people difficult to pronounce the sound and replace it with

other sounds that are considered the same or close, for example /c/ become /s/, in

Indonesian “baca (read)” become “basa”. Sound /f/ and /v/ become /p/ in “fanatik

(fanatic)” becomes “panatik”, “fondasi (foundation)” becomes “pondasi”. Sound /v/ in

“vitamin” becomes “pitamin”

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